Volokh Conspiracy Edition

Sudan: The LAT notes that lip service aside, nothing much is really being done about the "local [Sudanese] militias committing atrocities against the local population" [to quote the President], part of violence in the region that led to 10-30 thousand deaths over the last year alone in what is being called "ethnic cleansing." The editorial notes that since our forces are stretched out in Iraq, others (including Europe) need to fill in the gap. This sort of thing points out to the lie of claims that we are in Iraq because of our concern for its people. Human rights per se is a selective concern, it turns out. As we occupy ourselves in dealing with a nation that committed past atrocities, including in a region long autonomous (Northern Iraq), lives are actively being lost in bulk elsewhere. Ah well.

For some reason, The Volokh Conspiracy has decided to invite people from a more stridently conservative blog to their little party. Mark Kleiman pointed out an example of their work from a couple days ago in which one of them suggests Reagan is the best President in the 20th Century, partly because unlike FDR, his policies basically all worked out in the end. Sure.

I don't feel too guilty about focusing on the negative myself given some of the positive spin jobs like this out there. It also is the basic sentiment I have about his presidency. Kleiman suggested it was a bit unseemly to criticize Reagan right after he died, though some of the blatantly false spin makes it a bit hard for him to remain completely silent. I think now, when the matter is fresh in the public's mind, is the time to provide a critical overview of his life.

One guest blogger did submit an interesting piece on how Lolita might very well have been partly inspired by a German story. I find this ironic given how the author's son moved to block an author who used Lolita as inspiration for her book that viewed the events through the eyes of the victim. [Molly by Nancy J. Jones did the same thing without being sued, but she thinly veiled her efforts. On the other hand, even Lo's Diary was handled in a somewhat haphazard fashion.] As suggested by Free Culture, there is a tinge of hypocrisy when those who benefit from borrowing try to block others from doing the same. Putting that aside, it is an interesting piece of literary detective work.

Eugene Volokh also had some interesting comments regarding a case in Oregon involving the troubling issue of consensual sexual activity of the mental retarded. As his wont, Prof. Volokh provided some excellent blogging on the subject. The dissent (by a controversial, de facto filibustered, liberal judge) is interesting as well, especially since it ironically raises the rights of the mental retarded in rape case. Paternalism sometimes leads to a disrespect of the rights of those allegedly being protected. The facts in this case in particular is open to debate, but the dissent is right to point out we should not ignore the complexities of the issues involved.